J.D.C. Appropriates $70,000,000 in Eleven Months for Relief and Rehabilitation

November 9, 1947

New York (Nov. 7)

The record sun of $69,591,000 was appropriated by the Joint Distribution Committee in the first eleven months of this year for its relief, resettlement and reconestruction work, it was announced today by Moses A. Leavitt, J.D.C. executive vice-chairman.

The J.D.C. is now aiding close to 1,000,000 Jewish men, women and children in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Orient, Mr. Leavitt disclosed. A staff of 321 professional and technical workers from the United States and other lands, plus large numbers of qualified persons drawn from the ranks of Europe’s Jews, are carrying out J.D.C. programs.

He reported that the J.D.C.’s appropriations thus far this year, the greatest since the agency’s founding in 1914, are $11,000,000 more than was spent last year and more than twice the amount it used in 1945 to carry out its welfare and assistance programs.

“Europe’s 1,500,000 Jews, through almost superhuman effort and determination, have gained a foothold in the struggle back to normalcy and rehabilitation,” Mr. leavitt stated. “Their courage and vitality are among the most hopeful signs on the continent. Through the 280 medical institutions, the 304 children’s homes, the vocational training centers, loan funds and producers’ cooperatives which receive support from the J.D.C.,” he declared, “many of Europe’s Jews are beginning to make a real come-back.”

He warned, however, that in the coming winter months the Jews of Europe will face their worst crisis since the end of the war. “Unless increased aid is immediately forthcoming,” he stated, “the heartening progress made by Europe’s Jews towards a cultural and economic revival may be dissipated. UNRRA’s withdrawal and the inadequacy of its successor organization, the International Refugee Organization, mounting inflation throughout the continent, and crop-shortage and famine in Eastern Europe are causing increased hardship.”